So I've been back in California for two weeks now and for this trip I've made it a point to surf in as many places as I can for the time I'm here. I figure that during the summer, California is one of the most famous places in the world so it only makes sense to add it to my blog. I'll be posting a Guide to California Beaches blog in a few days giving advice about what beaches to visit for the adventurous traveler. I'll be using one of my own custom rating systems when describing different beaches called the friendly factor.

So for the past two weeks, I've been revisiting my home, the place that I grew up in, went to college and worked as a young professional before making the move to Metro Manila. Every place that I'm describing I'm describing from a local's perspective. Being away from here for the past 7 years however, I think I've grown more acute to how people relate to one another. This is the friendly factor and it makes quite a big difference as to how a person enjoys a place and, on a broader extent, their day.

(Get your Juice to go - download the Juice.ph Mobile App for iPhone and Android now.)

It really comes down to a simple "hello". When I first got back a weird thing happened to me. I kinda felt the insecurity of a foreigner. I wasn't sure how to address the airport personnel to ask where the bathrooms were and I kept throwing Tagalog terms into conversations like "eh kasi" and "daw". One of the most fundamental insecurities for a person is language because it's the most important tool we have for direct interpersonal communication. We don't want the other to think were vulnerable by not having a firm grasp on the language. At one point I stumbled over a figure of speech while talking to another surfer in Malibu. Instead of saying "We're all having fun just the same" I fumbled through it and said "We're all just the same having fun" which is really not saying what I wanted to say. I'm in the re-familiarization process and I'm almost comfortable now but I've realized that it's this insecurity with basic language that has made me super sensitive to language interaction.

Each place I've visited has an overall community personality that gives it a ranking on the friendly factor. Huntington Beach for example is super snobby, people don't pay any attention to other people for the most part and no one ever said hello to me there out of the blue. I grew up surfing in HB and it's only now that I'm coming to this realization. This is surf city where things are moving fast and people do their own thing. It's like the beach version of Hollywood. It's a nice place to go because it's an industry monster but NO ONE SAYS HELLO to anyone and I think that sucks. It's evident too in the water when you're surfing. People are pretty rude there.

Meanwhile, Lucadia, a small town in North County San Diego has a friendly factor that's absolutely off the charts! To be quite honest, I wasn't prepared for it. When I first got there I was quiet and just observing people. 95% percent of people I came into contact with physically there acknowledged me as they passed and not only said "Hello" but had an extended greeting like "Hello, how are you doing today?" or "Have a great day." It was quite refreshing and made me fall in love with the place.

(Hating it or loving it? RANT if it sucks, RAVE if it rocks and get the chance to win awesome prizes while you're at it.)

I wish you could change this about people and about places. I wish Metro Manila was a place where everyone gave you an extended greeting. I think there are too many factors in play here though and people are tired and cautious and kinda fed up with a bunch of genuine things to be fed up with. No one really has the answer as to how to begin to make a place more friendly but as for me, I'm gonna make it a point to genuinely greet people more from now on wherever I am.

Juice Recommends:

Juice Dining: Channel your inner foodie
Juice Shopping: What to buy and where to buy